My name is John and this is my writing journal. All the ups, downs and who knows what of it all.

Spam, more than one and a book you should read.

Hello again, here’s what I’ve been up to writing wise for the past few days.

Every time I’ve been updating this little blog of mine I’ve put a notification of the update on Facebook and Twitter. So far Twitter hasn’t been my friend, and I think it’s because I’m using it wrong but I’ll address that at a later time. Facebook on the other hand has been friendly to me. I update my own status and copy this to two writing groups. One of which suggested I tag the hell out of my post’s so I can get more exposure. I did so and found that it works. Well, sort of anyway.

I’ve received several pieces of Spam to my blog which tells me that tagging works, but it might take a while for this Spam to go away and be replaced by actual human interest. I also discovered ham which is the opposite of Spam. Good, useful comments instead of bad, unuseful one’s. Simple yet affective name for them I think.

Ok. That’s Spam (and Ham) out of the way. But what about more than one you ask? Hang on….

When I first started thinking about the story I’m currently writing, and running through it constantly in my head, I came up with the ending pretty much straight away. I wrote a chapter as part of the ‘Start Writing Fiction’ course I did with the Open University. This chapter has become a fully formed story within a few years. It was just about a man carrying a little girl on his back across a mud field.

The chapter concerned the beginning of the end of the story and was always going to be written from four different viewpoints. One scene happening with four chapters showing it as it unravels from four different angles. I’ve seen this done with great ease and grace by Bret Easton Ellis in his novel ‘The Rules of Attraction’. Since I read this back in 2003 or 2004 I’ve wanted to try my hand at it. Let me say this, its bloody difficult. But also bloody awesome.

My scene has the main villain squaring off against the hero and the two heroines. It’s in one room with them all interacting with each other. The villain set’s his demons upon them which they then have to fight off whilst trying to steal something from him. I’ve written one chapter, from the secondary heroine view point, and it went fine. Now I’m writing from the main heroine’s point of view and I have to keep going back and forth between chapters to make it all fit together.

I’m doing ok so far but making sure I cover everything is hard. I keep making new stuff up and after remembering what I’m doing, and where I am in some cases, I have to go back over and delete it. But it’s also very rewarding once I managed it. Reading it back is the best bit. Seeing it all fit together and play out in my head. It’s also years in making (in my head) and I’ve been waiting to write this like you wouldn’t believe. Once it’s done I’ll let you know how it went.

Right, that’s me done for now. If you’ve got any comments and/or feedback it would most welcome.